1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the recording of information on and the playback of prerecorded information from recording media in strip form and particularly to the insertion of magnetic tape cartridges or cassettes onto a tape deck. More specifically, this invention is directed to apparatus which facilitates the loading and unloading of cassettes or cartridges, the cassettes or cartridges containing a medium on which information has been or may be stored, onto record/playback apparatus. Accordingly, the general objects of the present invention are to provide novel and improved methods and apparatus of such character.
2. Description of the Prior Art
While not limited thereto in its utility, the present invention has been found to be particularly well suited for use with magnetic tape recording and/or playback apparatus of the type which receives cartridges or cassettes of magnetic tape; the cassettes being of the type wherein the tape is unwound from one spool or reel and is wound up on another spool or reel after having passed in front of a recording or playback head. Some of the problems associated with the loading or insertion of tape cartridges into such recording equipment are discussed in U.S. Pat. 3,385,534 which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
To briefly summarize the operation of a cassette type tape deck, in order to load the apparatus a cartridge or cassette must be caused to move relative to the tape deck in a substantially perpendicular direction in order to engage the cassette with upstanding elements on the deck such as the capstan, the shafts of the unwinding spool and the winding spool, positioning rods, etc. This tape insertion operation requires, from the user or operator, a degree of manipulative care.
The trend in the art is to reduce, to the extent possible, the attention and care the operator must give to the cassette loading operation. Thus, by way of example, in tape decks intended for installation in motor vehicles it is desired to simplify the loading operation to the point where driver distraction is minimized. Thus, in present apparatus, tape cassette insertion has been reduced to the step of merely inserting the cassette into a housing by sliding it into a slot arranged for this purpose on the front of the apparatus.
Continuing with a discussion of previously available tape recording-playback apparatus of the cassette type, the housing into which the cassette is to be introduced by sliding generally comprises two rails in which the lateral edges of the cassette slide. This equipment, nevertheless, is susceptible to jamming and thus requires more than the desired minimum amount of operator attention.